This invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a controlling method and a program medium and more particularly to an information processing apparatus, a controlling method and a program medium which can input various kinds of information.
Recently, portable personal computers have been and are being popularized. One of reasons why portable personal computers are popularized resides in their high convenience in that, for example, a user can carry a portable personal computer to another room in the same building or to a client to perform presentation of various kinds of information. Accordingly, a portable personal computer is naturally required to be small in size and light in weight from its original functions.
In order to make it possible for many users to operate a personal computer simply, a pointing device represented by a mouse is utilized as an inputting apparatus to a computer. Since even a person who is not familiar with a keyboard can perform an inputting operation comparatively readily using a pointing device, pointing devices have been and are being popularized rapidly. Since it is inconvenient to carry a mouse separately from a computer body particularly of a portable personal computer, such a pointing device as a touch pad or a track ball is provided frequently on portable personal computers.
A portable personal computer is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-214154 wherein a pointing device is removably mounted on a computer body and is utilized as a remote controller in order to assure a high degree of convenience in use.
Another portable personal computer is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-74119 wherein a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is removably mounted on a computer body such that it not only can be remotely controlled in a presentation but also can be utilized as a stand-alone device in order to achieve a higher degree of convenience.
However, any of such pointing devices as proposed in the past requires many buttons and switches in order to allow selective inputting of a predetermined one of many kinds of inputs depending upon the case, and such buttons and switches increase the size of the pointing device. Consequently, the portable personal computer in which the pointing device is incorporated is increased in size, and after all, the range of use of the portable personal computer is restricted.
Further, since the PDA proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-74119 does not have a function as a pointing device, a mouse or some other pointing device must be additionally provided to the portable personal computer, resulting in increase of the scale and the cost of the apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus, a controlling method and a program medium which can input various kinds of information simply and with reliability without increasing the scale thereof.
In order to attain the object described above, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus, including first inputting means for inputting predetermined information, first processing means for processing the information inputted from the first inputting means, first displaying means for displaying the information processed by the first processing means, second displaying means for displaying information, and second inputting means for inputting predetermined information, the second inputting means being disposed on a front side of the second displaying means in such a manner as to allow the information displayed on the second displaying means to be visually observed through the second inputting means, the first processing means controlling, in a normal operation mode, the first displaying means to display the information processed by the first processing means based on coordinate data inputted from the second inputting means.
In the information processing apparatus, information is displayed not only on the first displaying means but also on the second displaying means. The second inputting means is disposed such that the information displayed on the second displaying means may be visually observed therethrough.
Consequently, with the information processing apparatus, since the second displaying means which can be visually observed through the second inputting means is provided in addition to the first displaying means, coordinate data can be inputted (for example, a function as a pointing device can be implemented) and besides a predetermined function can be selected and inputted rapidly and with reliability from among many functions without increasing the size of the apparatus.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a controlling method for controlling an information processing apparatus which includes first inputting means for inputting predetermined information, first displaying means for displaying the information inputted from the first inputting means, second displaying means for displaying information, and second inputting means for inputting predetermined information, the second inputting means being disposed on a front side of the second displaying means in such a manner as to allow the information displayed on the second displaying means to be visually observed through the second inputting means, the controlling method including a detection step of detecting a mode, and a displaying step of causing, in an ordinary operation mode, the first displaying means to display the information inputted from the first inputting means based on coordinate data inputted from the second inputting means.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program medium for causing an information processing apparatus, which includes first inputting means for inputting predetermined information, first displaying means for displaying the information inputted from the first inputting means, second displaying means for displaying information, and second inputting means for inputting predetermined information, the second inputting means being disposed on a front side of the second displaying means in such a manner as to allow the information displayed on the second displaying means to be visually observed through the second inputting means, to execute a program which includes a detection step of detecting a mode, and a displaying step of causing, in an ordinary operation mode, the first displaying means to display the information inputted from the first inputting means based on coordinate data inputted from the second inputting means.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts or elements denoted by like reference symbols.